Groceteria.com

I'm leaving on a Southern Ontario road trip late next week, with time in Toronto, Ottawa, and maybe Montreal. Pointers to interesting sights very much solicited, especially (as always) older stores with well-preserved interiors.

Hi Groceteria, not sure if you left yet on your trip. For Ottawa, 2 stores worth visiting are the Loblaws at Elmvale Acres Shopping Centre (St. Laurent Blvd.). This store is still in the early 90s Loblaws scheme - grey with yellow cash registers. It's also an old Steinberg's and still has a car order/parcel pickup. The other store still with a parcel pickup in Ottawa is the Your Independent Grocer at Billings Bridge Plaza (Bank & Riverside).

Another store worth visiting is the Metro in the Glebe on Bank St. That part of Bank is currently closed to traffic, but you can park and walk to the store in about 5 minutes.

There's a great store to visit in Pembroke up the Ottawa Valley called Moncion's. Again this store is equipped with a parcel pickup. The Metro in downtown Kingston also has a car order. 2 other stores with parcel pickups, but which I've unfortunately never been to, are a Metro in Dundas and a Metro in London.

The parcel pickup system is so rare nowadays, so if you get the chance to hit up the few remaining stores that still have them (and hopefully snap some photos) it's worth it to see dying customer service in a grocery store in action.